Blues Blast Magazine Senior Writer Terry Mullins has our feature interview with Chicago's own, Johnny Drummer.
We have 5 music reviews for you including music from Igor Prado Band and Delta Groove All-Stars, Mike Sponza & Central European Orchestra, The DogTown Blues Band, Cesar Crespo & The Pinballâ€™s Blues Party and RC and the Moonpie Band.
Our Video of the Week is Blues rocker Albert Castiglia performing the song "Big Toe".

The Fatum Crittenden Orchestra (formerly Fatum Brothersâ€™ Jazz Orchestra) is not your ordinary jazz big band. No sir, no maâ€™am, we pride ourselves on what makes us unique.
Our youth and enthusiasm is equalled by our professionalism and experience.

I grew up in Highland Park, MI, the daughter of legendary pre-Motown record producer, Joe Von Battle.
I am a self-described "primordial Detroiter, and for many years I have written about the cityâ€™s music and its past and future. I am a noted presenter and I have contributed to important anthologies, narratives and an HBO documentary.
I was awarded a 2012 Kresge Literary Arts Fellowship, and I have received accolades for my One Woman Show, Live On Hastings Street! I am working on a documentary film about my father's record shop, with veteran Detroit film-maker Juanita Anderson.
I live in historic Lafayette Park, Detroit, and I am married to the artist David Philpot.

Mark Thompson has our feature interview with 2014 Blues Blast Music Award nominee, Lisa Biales. Steve Jones has a review of a great Blues concert called, The Young Guns Of Blues.
We have 5 music reviews for you including a double CD collection from Ruf Records to celebrate their 20th anniversary, plus music from Donald Ray Johnson, The Hep Cat Boo Daddies, Sabrina Weeks & Swing Cat Bounce and Michael Osborn & The Drivers.

I recently had the pleasure of seeing her perform at a pro
jam at the Rum Boogie Cafe in Memphis and now Iâ€™m experiencing the
pleasure of getting to work on her fourth release - â€ś*All Rivers Run To The
Sea*â€ť
The CD features seven original tracks, with six of them penned by Eef - on
lead guitar and vocals.

It was a real party at the Red Goose Deli in Paragould, Arkansas, on July 20, 2009. Jeannie and The Guys aka the best Rock and Roll band in the world was making the finest noise you ever heard and the audience was dancing their tails off. As they say, it don't get no better than this.

June 21, 2014 at 10:00 PM CT Something_Blue-Rag_Doll by Hairylarry on Mixcloud This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’ll hear some great blues rock from The Steepwater Band and … Continue reading →

June 14, 2014 at 10:00 PM CT Something_Blue-Buckets by Hairylarry on Mixcloud This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’ll hear Sonny Burgess and the Legendary Pacers recorded live at … Continue reading →

Footwear - Starts with horns and percussion. Imitation from guitar. A kind of a hard bop head in time. Bass joins with a repetitive part in 4 and improvisation begins with a sax solo. Bass solo. Percussion answering bass while drums stay on a groove. Sax joins on end of solo with echo effect on. Guitar solo. Hanging notes with reverse envelope interspersed with picked lines and occasional harmonies. The same melodic fragment at the end of the solo. Now the guitar plays the head. Drums fills and ends with guitar echoes.

The bulk of the song is modal over a two bar pattern. Inventive improvisation keeps this interesting. The group works together well answering each others ideas.

Life Of The Mind - Spacey intro. Free jazz influenced jam band. Percussive guitar part episode then into a groove like a latin clave. Guitar and sax play the head. In 7. And then 8. Improvisation over this 7 then 8 pattern held together by the bass. Guitar solo with tasteful wa wa. Kind of like funk played in time. Rhythmic episode and then the sax solo. Now the drummer is holding the beat with bass out. Guitar interlude on the head. Drum solo with the guitar holding the rhythm. Back to head. Guitar first and then with sax. A melodic variation and then with harmonies. Ends with a little fade.

Again a nice arrangement with a real head and a very short improvisational form. Using 7 then 8 time during the improv parts forces inventiveness and makes their sound different than a funk band.

West End Strut - Starts on the head. Again in time. Quickly into guitar solo before the time becomes obvious. Sax solo. Guitar chords supporting the solo. Echoes of fusion. Bebop sax solo. Head interlude. Guitar solo playing notes. I think the time is 4-2-4-4-2. Simple yet difficult to count. Catchy once you get it. Guitar moves out of notes into extended timbre then back to notes with some soaring. Signals the end of his solo with the head. Now the guitar plays some bebop figures in a solo extension. And the head. Drum solo with rhythnmic background from percussion, bass and guitar. Out on the head.

Again a short unusual pattern. This time it persists throughout the piece.

The Green Dragon - Very melodic intro. Then a 4 bar 3/4 pattern. Surprisingly complex with a latin tinge. Guitar solo. Sometimes the time shifts to 4 and 2. A melodic figure signals the bass. Guitar and sax play head over bass. The melodic fragment starts the sax solo. Time continues to shift relying on the bass pattern for definition. Drums soloing behind the sax solo. Now they are working together rhythmically. Ends on this rhythmic high point.

An original by Riley Stockwell that sounds more like late 20th century jazz then funk/jam jazz. I get the feeling that this is a very simple arrangement with a lot of room for variation from performance to performance.

Five Of Swords - Strong feel of five but hard to count. Extended head/intro and then guitar solo playing lines against the complex bass pattern. Ok, I'm counting this in 10. But more like 4-2-2-2 than 5-5. After the solo the guitar plays with the bass and there is a drum feature. What further complicates the 10 beat rhythm is that it starts on 2. Ends on this riff over drums.

This band is obviously into playing in time but they manage to do this with substantial variation and considerable groove.

Morning Talks - This original by Sam Kurzontkowski is very much in the fusion vein. Melodic extended head followed by a bass solo. Spacey guitar high ringing chords at the end of the bass solo and then sax and guitar call and response. Really sweet. No definite duration on the parts, sometimes trading bars and sometimes extended phrases with occasional overlapping counterpoint. Segues into a nice guitar figure and then melodic harmony between the sax and guitar building to a strong motif. The melodic harmony repeats but goes to bass to end.

This 9 minute song held my attention with no problem whatsoever.

Keoka - Another Riley Stockwell original. Extended melodic head. Guitar solo. Short bebop/blues figures. Gestures stacked on top of each other. A fusion interlude and then sax. Much sparser overall and very powerful becoming percussive with stacatto and heavily accented phrasing. Post bop. Strong performance. Guitar repeating some of the sax phrasing. Both guitar and sax. Hard to tell who's soaring and who's vamping. Fusion interlude. Great ensemble work. Drums under head on the way out. Sudden stop.

They just keep getting better.

These young musicians write great songs but they also cover other 21st century jazz composers showing that they are deep into contemporary jazz literature. I love listening to live recordings at the Live Music Archive but this recording really made me want to see their show.

The Jonesboro Public Library subscribes to the Freegal program for it's patrons. Freegal allows card holders to download or stream music from their computer. The library offered is large and varied but not real strong on contemporary jazz. They do, however offer many great Oscar Peterson albums so I have been downloading them. Downloading six songs a week it only took me two weeks to get this Jerome Kern anthology. When I put them in my media player they came up in alphabetical order so probably not the way they were intended to be listened to.

According to Dr. Ken Carroll, Director of Jazz Studies at ASU, Oscar Peterson is the best jazz pianist in the history of jazz. His virtuosity is astounding and he can play anything from jazz to blues to boogie woogie to classical. So I was amazed to hear his simple, straightforward renditions of these Jerome Kern standards. He keeps his virtuosity well hidden until he plays "Ol' Man River". Not to say that there's anything wrong with his arrangements. Not a note out of place and not an extra note. Then on "Pick Yourself Up" he really lets loose with amazing streams of notes interspresed with what could be single finger melody lines.

With "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" he is back to the same sound that he had on the first six songs but with some ornamentation. As he continues through the piece the playing gets simpler and simpler and sounds better and better.

"The Song Is You" is uptempo and he starts off cooking but contrary to "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" he doubles down and gets amazing for a while before coming back to the melody to close.

On "The Way You Look Tonight" He chords through the melody on the head giving his bass player some room to play. Then he solos once around keeping it pretty restrained. He comes back to chords on the way out and the drummer and the bass player get some space to work out.

He takes some liberties with "Yesterdays" on the intro repeating themes in different octaves with full keyboard runs in between. When he comes to the song the melody dominates but still with substantial fills. Only when he gets to the end of the piece do we get the simple straightforward arrangement that characterize this album.

I love listening to virtuoso pianists playing great jazz, especially standards. But displays of virtuosity turn me off. I'm here for the song, not the pianist. On this album Oscar Peterson presents Jerome Kern's standards in a way anyone can enjoy.

By The River - Lifted stylistically from 1920s jazz complete with tight female vocal part and improvised horn counterpoint. There is just a dab of 21st century mixed in so a 1920s jazz aficianado might notice. A little bit of vocal processing or sung vocal processing at the end.

No Place I Can Go - Gershwinesque. Drum machine like beat brings the hiphop. The female vocal is a little bit lower and darker and not always on top. The drums are just enough out of style that I find them distracting but I don't think a hiphop listener would even notice.

Not Afraid - Djangoesque. With a DJ and some spoken word as a short interlude before piano takes the melody. The most hiphop influence so far. Soaring female vocal in the background. Piano solo. Freddie Green comping on guitar. Spoken parts like found music. Another DJ interlude brings us back to the vocalist still in the background. Very short form repeated with contemporary interludes.

Throw It Back - Glenn Miller sound. Rapper over the thirties jazz orchestra. Clarinet solo. Again the drums are a little bit out of style compared to the orchestra. Again a repeated short form.

Stereosun - Disco hop. Scratching. 8 bar form repeated. Like an intro played over and over. Then a lighter texture on the same form. Picking back up to the opening sound. Processed female vocals. Rapping in the background. Drum solo. Hand drums and kit or machine.

Throw It Back (instrumental) - 8 bar form becomes very repetitive without the hip hop enhancements. The piano is pretty interesting and then back into the intro part with sax enhancement. Clarinet. Brass. You begin to hunger for the vocalist and you get a little bit at the end of the form a few times. What a tease.

Seven songs ranging from 2:30 to 4:00 minutes makes for a 25:30 quick listen. ProleteR is a gifted composer and arranger who has absorbed historic jazz styles and uses them well in a hiphop environment. I like it.

01. Black Market02. Scarlet Woman03. Young and Fine04. The Pursuit of the Woman with the Feathered Hat05. A Remark You Made06. River People07. Thanks for the Memories08. Dolores / Portrait of Tracy / Third Stone from the Sun09. Mr. Gone10. In a Silent Way11. Waterfall12. Teen Town13. I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good / The Midnight Sun Will Never Set On You14. Birdland15. Introductions16. Fred & Jack17. Elegant People18. Badia

Previously unreleased recordings from pioneering fusion band Weather Report playing live in the 1970s

Black Market

Starts with laughing or cawing. Electric keyboard solo with comping. Bass and sax then with keys. A head part. Sound like sax multiphonics or the keyboard could be harmonizing. Simple repetitive part. Free jazz sax solo with just sax and drums. Bass and keys back and we're back on the repeating head. Great single line solo from Zawinul on organ/synth. Bass solo with harmonies. Everyone playing short bursts. Out.

This is great playing and every part of it is experimental except for the overall arrangement which is kind of definitely solos and ensemble work. They do, however improvise throughout even during the ensemble work and they don't hesitate to enter on someone else's solo. The most powerful part was the minimalist sax and drums solo. So free.

Scarlet Woman

Starts on keys. Kind of a flute sound. Vocal countdown and thunder. Countdown electronicized somehow. Drums. A motif on bass and keys. Bluesy and then some scale excerpts. Wayne shorter on soprano sax. Spacey solo keyboard work. The return of the motif on bass. Keys answering with melodic improvisation. Again the scale excerpts with soprano sax and it ends.

A keyboard feature with a very small skeleton. Quite experimental really. and listenable throughout.

Young And Fine

Short intro and the tenor on the head. This is a Weather Report classic. Instantly recognizable. The head repeats modulated down. Free jazz sax solo over drums bass and keys modal accompaniment. The head short version. Keyboard solo. vi-ii-V-I accompaniment. Sax and keys on outtro.

Generally speaking not enough harmonic content for my taste but they do pull it off.

A Remark You Made

Acoustic piano intro. A real song with a change. Tenor sax on the melody. A sparse keyboard interlude. Back to sax. Jaco playing the melody on bass. Keys and sax trading melodic lines. This is a classic jazz ballad sound presented in a different way. Bass repeating a melodic fragment. Out on sparse keys improv.

This is a Joe Zawinul song and as far as I'm concerned it's all the way there. The album "Heavy Weather" started with two Zawinul compositions, "Birdland" and "A Remark You Made". This is a very successful jazz album commercially as well as artistically.

Weather Report is an outstanding band for their writing, performance, and innovation. This particular lineup with Jaco on bass is one of the best bands in jazz history. Hearing a live show like this brings that out. The studio recordings are great but sometimes we all need another take on things and live is live. It's the unpredictability of live music that makes it so compelling.

This is the first 40 minutes of a 2 hour concert. The whole concert is on YouTube. Recommended.

This book extensively covers the experimental music I was raised with that ran parallel to the music we have been studying in class. At the beginning of the chapter on Creative Jazz Scarufi writes "Creative music was obviously related to experiments by John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Morton Feldman..."

He also includes a database of musician bios where he says "Arkansas-raised tenor saxophonist Sam Rivers (1923), who had studied at a conservatory of music, represented the highbrow alter-ego of Ornette Coleman's free jazz."

So I was intrigued

Luminous Monolith - from the Fuchsia Swing Song album (December 1964)

Amazing musicians with drummer Tony Williams, pianist Jaki Byard and bassist Ron Carter. The piece is episodic starting with a kind of swing feel after a short arpeggiated intro. Quickly into a drum break. Then the intro again kind of juiced up. Swing again. Then Free Jazz sax sound with just piano comping. Swing again then solo Free Jazz sax. Continues like this with very short episodes and with the Free Jazz infecting the swing parts. Piano solo with straight episodes. Constant stylistic changes. Drum solo. Back to sax. Now Free Jazz is dominating the swing with occasional other styles thrown in. Short drums and then back to sax, swing and then Free Jazz ending.

This was 1964. Because of Tony Williams work with Miles Davis' Second Great Quintet and all of his other work in jazz his style has been fully assimilated. He is considered to be one of the most influential 20th century jazz drummers. Probably because of this his breaks do not sound as revolutionary now as they did in 1964.

At the time Free Jazz was not well accepted. It's practitioners were over hyping how new it was and many listeners had difficulty grasping the transition. I think Luminous Monolith does a good job of showing the growth of Free Jazz out of Swing and Bebop styles.

Piano intro. Bass and piano, then Sam Rivers on flute. The bass is playing a repeated pattern with the piano varying chords on top of it. The flute has an extended melody without repetition. The muted trumpet is more thematic yet still constantly varying. The piano plays a scale of chords building energy and then back to a more constant part. Piano and bass only in a bass solo. The bass remains repetitive. An extended part of his solo centers around a single tone. Flute enters. More Euterpic meanderings. Very sparse accompaniment. Down to a trio in what could be called a piano solo. Almost all chorded moving into some notes. Like the other solos repetitive and tending to focus on a single note or tone. The flute enters with a melodic motif that is repeated and then varied. Ending with a repeated bass line and a sparse, comped, piano part.

This is a very listenable piece with none of the noise and anger associated with Free Jazz from this era. Very modal sounding and very exploratory. No recognizable melody until the last flute solo.

Mellifluos Cacophony - from the Contours CD

Head with sax and trumpet in a strong Free Jazz style followed by swinging sax solo with intermittent bursts beyond bebop. Piano solo. Heavily patterned with repeated motifs up and down the scale. Strong right hand emphasis. Trumpet. After a cacophonic head they are taking turns and they really lose the cacophony. I guess this is the mellifluos part. Hubbard follows Hancock's lead with occasional repeated motifs but not as often with a lot of scale type soloing as well. Drum solo. This is actually a kind of standard jazz arrangement. Chambers is definitely laying down a pulse. Out on the head which sounds less experimental the second time around. I think the repetition shows that it is arranged and written out removing some of the spontaneity.

I love these pieces. I would call them Free Jazz influenced rather than Free Jazz school. They are from Rivers first two albums and so they probably do not represent his most experimental work. I certainly intend to listen to more.

Andy Cohen will be playing at the Brookland Methodist Church on Wednesday, February 4. At 6:00 pm we will serve ham and beans. At 7:00 music and worship featuring Andy Cohen. The church is located at 301 W. Matthews about a block from the Brookland Post Office. There is no charge for the music or the food but donations will be accepted.

KASUâ€™s Bluegrass Monday is back this Monday night with a band returning by popular demand for an incredible eighth appearance in our concert series.

Monroe Crossing will perform a concert of bluegrass music on Monday, January 26, at 7:00 p.m. at the Collins Theatre, 120 West Emerson Street, in downtown Paragould, Arkansas. The concert is part of the Bluegrass Monday concert series presented by KASU 91.9 FM. KASU will literally â€śpass the hatâ€ť to collect money to pay the group. The suggested donation is at least $5 per person.

Named in honor of the creator of bluegrass music, Bill Monroe, the band Monroe Crossing plays traditional bluegrass music, Gospel songs, original melodies and their own unique treatments of songs that werenâ€™t originally bluegrass tunes. The band performed over 150 concerts in 2014 at bluegrass festivals, churches and venues across the country. Monroe Crossing has recorded 13 CDs and has produced a concert DVD. A new CD, including music recorded live at past Bluegrass Monday performances, will be available for purchase at the concert.

Based in Minnesota, Monroe Crossing is the only bluegrass band ever to be named â€śArtist of the Yearâ€ť (2004) by the Minnesota Music Academy. The group has also been inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame and has received numerous awards from the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Association. In both 2007 and in 2014, the band received the prestigious invitation to appear at the showcase concert at the International Bluegrass Music Associationâ€™s annual convention.

Members of Monroe Crossing include Lisa Fugile who plays fiddle and sings. She was raised in Nigeria, Africa, and she first discovered bluegrass music through a 78 RPM record of music by Bill Monroe.

Matt Thompson of Mankato, Minnesota, plays mandolin and fiddle. He is a past winner of the â€śMandolin Player of the Yearâ€ť award given by the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Association. He also serves as emcee for the band during their concerts. Thompson has been playing bluegrass music in many bands over the past 30 years, including True Blue, a group which appeared on Garrison Keillorâ€™s â€śA Prairie Home Companionâ€ť nationally-syndicated public radio program.

Mark Anderson plays bass in the group. His first musical experience was playing in alternative rock bands, but his musical tastes changed dramatically after being introduced to bluegrass music in 1995.

Derek Johnson sings and plays guitar. He co-founded the High 48s Bluegrass Band, a group which released four CDs, toured nationwide, and won the prestigious Rocky Grass bluegrass band competition in 2008.

David Robinson plays banjo for the band. He became interested in folk and blues music at a young age, but exposure to a local bluegrass band led him to begin playing banjo at age 14. His banjo playing is influenced by David Holt and Earl Scruggs, and he also taught himself how to play guitar, mandolin and harmonica.

Monroe Crossing has been a full-time, professional bluegrass band since the year 2000. More details about the band, including videos of past performances, are available at www.monroecrossing.com and at www.facebook.com/bluegrassmonday.

Tickets will be distributed at the theatre beginning at 5:00 p.m. Tickets must be obtained in person, and seating will be first-come, first-served.

Bluegrass Monday concerts are held on the fourth Monday night of each month. These concerts are presented with support from Bibb Chiropractic, the Posey Peddler, Holiday Inn Express and Suites of Paragould, the Northeast Arkansas Bluegrass Association and KASU.

KASU, 91.9 FM, is the 100,000 watt public broadcasting service of Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. For more information, contact KASU Program Director Marty Scarbrough at mscarbro@astate.edu or 870-972-2367. Bluegrass Monday is also on Facebook (search â€śBluegrass Mondayâ€ť). To be removed from this emailing list, reply to this message.

Iâ€™m looking forward to seeing all my bluegrass friends Monday for another memorable night of music and entertainment with Monroe Crossing.

I just sent the below article in to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette,from a piece they did on Arkansas Music this last Sunday. A full,whole seciton on music, page after page, and not one damn mention ofany working blues musician at all. A crying shame, in a state withsuch rich blues heritage our own media shunts us, and turns their backon us. I also have this posted on Blues Guitar Newswww.bluesguitarnews.com with the ADG editor links and mailing address,to see if I can get anyone else in the world to put their two cents intoo. This ticked me off so bad, and I still fuming over it. Here iswhat I sent every one of their publishers, and editors. Talk to youlater, and have a Merry Christmas and let 2009 find you happy, healthyand wealthy. Mike.

I had to wait a couple of days before I got into writingy'all down at the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. In your rendition andinterpretation about the state of music in Arkansas, and then musicnationally in general I have to say . . . . . ugh, thank you. Thankyou from the prospective that you do make the attempt to keep a dab ofArkansas music alive and well in your publications. Because my mammataught me if I couldn't say anything nice, then don't say anything atall, I can't get into my real deep thoughts I pondered regarding thepiece. Due to my lengthy career as a music journalist I did howeverlearn to dazzle them with my footwork. Goes with the job I guess. Here goes nothing.

To start off let me thank Peter Read of Nightflying EntertainmentGuide, and Dottie Oliver at Free Press for keeping us street levelArkansas blues musicians mentioned and journalized in theirpublications. Arkansas Times does a little of that too. I do have tothank Jack Hill at ADG, for keeping some of our local blues musiciansposted. Heck, even a few of the ADG employees come out and see someof our blues shows. What I didn't like about your Musical Mishmasharticle, is us underground local blues folks didn't even get anhonorable mention. Hey, we're use to it, so don't fret about theobvious oversight. No slam on you folks, being a 50-year bluesguitar veteran, slammed doors is par on the musical course in life.We just pack it up, and move to the next gig.

I will do an Arkansas Blues Musician page at my on-lineblues ezine Blues Guitar News in the first of the year.www.bluesguitarnews.com It does have a worldwide following of about30,000 - plus thousands of hits on our MySpace site. There is aworldwide underground blues cult that is totally amazing, but you haveto be a street level musician to understand it, and have any knowledgeregarding the far-reaching popularity blues is attaining very rapidly. The world is starting to learn that Arkansas shares the Mighty MuddyRiver with Mississippi, and we have a long heritage of blues onlymatched by Mississippi.

First off, the obvious two oversights in your ArkansasMusic assessment were Michael Burks and Joe Pitts. Michael, is on amajor top blues label, and the word in the street level blues circlesis he is the next BB, Albert or Freddy King, real deal bluesguitarist; Winner of every kind of blues award with the BluesFoundation, and up for a blues Grammy. Thing is Arkansas clams AlbertKing as one of our own, and Michael is the next generation bluesguitarist following in Albert's footsteps filling Mr. King's shoesrather nicely, and is the real deal. Joe Pitts, another major labeland international touring band has just returned from an extensivetour in Europe, and is planning another Euro jaunt in February withother major headliners. Outside of local blues circles here at home,he is not known by y'all here in Arkansas much, but a star in Europe,and a guitar icon in Italy who highly revere him on the level of EricClapton, Eric Johnson, Jeff Beck, Joe Bonamassa, Derek Trucks andDwayne Allman. Thanks Peter Read, for the nice article on Joe. Hedeserves the recognition, along with his wife Rhonda Pitts, and herhighly acclaimed Nashville trained Lonesome Oak recording studio.

Secondly, the Blues Societies here in Arkansas work theirtail ends off, keeping the Arkansas blues heritage alive and well.Presidents; Barbara "Bab's" Bearden and VP Jeff Weeden of the ArkansasRiver Blues Society, Liz Lottmann of the Ozark Blues Society andLeadra LeNea of the Spa City Blues Society in Hot Springs, are thebehind the scenes labor of love folks keeping the blues alive andwell. You missed Jeff and these three wonderful ladies that deserve alittle respect in the media from time-to-time for their untiringdevotion to Arkansas Blues. You can add in Deb Moser, to this listtoo. She can be heard on KABF 88.3 FM, and has one of the longestrunning blues shows in Arkansas, "Debs Blues House Party."

More . . . Thank you for the articles you've done on Essie"The Blues Lady" Neal, as she is the sweetheart of Arkansas blues, andif you don't know it, she is well known on an international stage anda member of the Blues Hall of Fame. You also did a very nice piece onAl Bell, of Stax Records. But, how about John Craig, the local livingblues legend? He has a new blues CD out. Mr. Craig is well knownworldwide in deep blues circles. He is the real deal, and recordedwith major artists on ABC Paramount Records, and toured with IkeTurner. You would think at 63 years old, and a lifetime dedicated tothe blues we could get John in Arkansas Media a little.

Hey, how about the winners from Arkansas in theInternational Blues Challenge at Memphis, slated for February 9th,2009. This is an international event. I don't think I read aboutthis in your Arkansas Mishmash article either. From Hot Springs wehave Unseen Eye, and Ben "Swamp Donkey" Brenner, from Little Rock wehave "Gil Franklin & Port Arthur" and "Blues Boy Jag" and fromFayetteville we have Gary Hucthison and Oreo Blue all traveling toMemphis, and I am sure the Tennessee media will take note of theArkansas participants. Talking Mr. Hucthison, I bet y'all down atthe ADG, didn't know that Gary hosts the blues jam session at theInternational Arlington, Texas Vintage Guitar Show, and has done sofor over a decade in the swank Sheridan Hotel. But, Texas embracesblues pickers. This is a major underground guitar extravaganza, withtens of thousands of folks traveling in from the four corners of theworld to attend this three-day event. Gary is known worldwide for hisstage guitar prowess, and for those of us that have shared the stagewith him know his Arkansas blues band is a solid act waiting on amajor blues label.

Runner up to this whole major blues event is little old me, and myband that got mentioned as the best self produced blues CD from LittleRock, for the IBC in Memphis. That's cool; Linda Cailloutet missedall of us in Paper Trails too. We do want to thank Steve and thegreat folks at Good Morning Arkansas, KATV ABC ch 7, for having us ontheir show this month to talk about some of the blues items I amlisting. Super great support team at KATV for local Little Rock bluesmusicians. We would like to also thank Pat Lynch, who occasionallyhas local blues talent on his radio talk show. Mr. Lynch, although asuper political satire and analysis expert, has a great depth ofunderstanding on music and the blues. We thank Pat from the bottomof our hearts for inviting us on his radio show, to talk ArkansasBlues on a down to earth level.

I need to tell you about another living Arkansas Blues Legend, EbDavis. Mr. Davis lives most of his time in Europe now, like so manyblues artists. You see they respect and honor blues folks in the oldcountry, and Eb is a blues icon all over the European continent. Eb'sbio reads like a who's who of blues and R&B, and he is personalfriends with BB king and Bobby Bland, who he has toured with in yearspast. Jefferson Blues, the oldest worldwide renowned blues magazinein Europe has just featured a full-length article on Eb Davis, andthey do make mention of his Arkansas roots. Congratulations Eb, longtime coming.

Other tid-bits of Arkansas blues talent could include Charlotte Taylorand Gypsy Rain, Brethren, Cosmic Biscuit, Joe Marks & NTO, Max Taylor,Charles Woods, Artis Bivens, Billy Jones, Danny & the Shuffle Kings,and The Tablerockers etcetera, who are a just a few of the Arkansasblues folks that deserve a little respect and recognitionoccasionally. When you talk about Arkansas blues history andlegends, you can either see our web page on the matter, or take ourword that the following blues or R&B legends all have some sort ofArkansas link or roots:

Sonny "Sunshine" Payne King Biscuit Blues Radio Show on KFFA Radio, inHelena, AR.Sonny Payne, one of the first ever all Blues DJ's.

BB King named his guitar "Lucille" in Twist, Arkansas

Well, I just went and blew my socks off on all of this,and y'all probably think I'm just a big sour grapes kind of guy now.I am sorry for coming off so abruptly, but I had to get it off mychest. I am just totally frustrated that I can get Arkansas blues onthe international map, and then have to fight tooth and toenail to geta "blip" in local Arkansas media. I am thankful for folks like PeterRead, Dottie Oliver and Hairy Larry of Delta Boogiewww.deltaboogie.com that respect us working blues musicians, and goout of their way to support and encourage us. This isn't a personalsolicitation for me. I've had interviews and reviews in most musicpublications and newspapers in major cities from Los Angeles to NewYork, and all across Europe, and featured on over 200 blues radiostations worldwide. That isn't what this is all about. Blues doesn'tshare the pop music culture of, "Its all about me." We do what wecall "sharing the hog," and "shouting out," about others. Blues folksis family. I will until I finally succumb to all my various disablinginfirmities someday, keep on tooting and shouting out about Arkansasblues on the worldwide blues stage to let 'em know in the streets,"Blues is Alive & Well in Arkansas." We have blues history, and weare just as much proud of our bluesmen and women as; Memphis,Clarksdale, Chicago and New Orleans, cities that brag about theirblues music heritage, and keep them in the forefront in all theirlocal publications.

Thank you for your time, and if I offended you in any way, forgive myrudeness. That is not the intended message. I subscribe to youpaper, and read Pat Lynch and Paul Greenberg every chance I get.Also, thank you for printing my non-music articles in "Voices."Someday, I hope you accept one of my music articles, as they do pop upfrequently in publications all over the world.

Arkansas Democrat Gazette Link, if you want to put in your two centstoo. If not, I'll be the lone wolf in the desert shouting out about itall.Web Link: